Uttarakhand state geo-portal for decentralized governance

Abstract

Uttarakhand Geo-Portal is a single window access mechanism at the State level to an Internet-based directory of geospatial data, metadata and services. Such data sets are usually acquired or provided by the line departments and agencies of the Government of Uttarakhand for conducting its own businesses. The Geo-Portal allows the data providers and users to discover and share geospatial data related to features like block-, tehsil-, district- and state-level boundaries, population; agro- and socio-economic items; natural resources; infrastructure facilities along with their relevant attributes to support developmental decision-making at different levels of the governance in the State. Designed and developed with the involvement of the end-users, the underlying database schema of the Geo-Portal is based on the ISO 19103 (Conceptual Schema Language) specifications and provides standards-based Web services like Web Map Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS), and Catalogue Service on Web (CS-W) for accessing data and metadata in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). The paper aims at providing the details of the underlying activities leading to the development of the geospatial database, the State Geo-Portal, the State Data Sharing Policy and a coordinating structure for the provision of up-to-date data and GIS application services for transparent, good and decentralized governance of the State.